MARKETING PEOPLE
LORRAINE WALSH Head of Marketing, Laya Healthcare
WITH 580,000 members, more than 500 staff and a 27pc share of the private health insurance market in Ireland, Laya Healthcare is Ireland’s second-largest health-insurance provider. But with only 45.8pc of the population having private health insurance, there is plenty of growth left in the market as Lorraine Walsh, head of marketing with Laya tells John McGee.
Describe your role with Laya
I’m head of marketing and work with 11 very talented members of our in-house team. My role is one of brand guardian, ensuring we deliver on our promise to ‘Look After You Always’ by putting our members at the heart of our brand and business decisions, so that we continue to offer value and innovation in ways that empower them to live and feel better.
What are your main challenges?
Our biggest challenge has turned into our biggest marketing opportunity and that’s ‘always-on-digital’. Our members want to access their health cover and our teams anytime, anywhere and from any device.
So, we’ve invested in digital customer service which allows our members more convenient access for self-service through our members area. We also have a great member app that allows people to submit claims for GPs and consultants 24/7 with payments being made in a matter of days. Our CareOnCall service allows access to Irish-registered GPs, nurses and physios at a time that is convenient to members.
In a competitive market, how do you gain cut-through?
Our brand and our people are our strongest assets and they are our most compelling differentiator. Anyone can compete on price, but it’s on value, benefits and delivering an incredible customer experience where we come into our own.
We were recently voted number one for customer experience, ahead of all other insurers. This week we unveiled a major new brand repositioning campaign, centred around a purpose-driven theme ‘It’s good to live’. It’s our biggest integrated campaign in years, and strives to build a more emotional connection with our members, showing why it’s so good to live for the moment, embrace life, its freedoms and all the imperfections that come with it.
We want to move the conversation with our members from the fear of being unwell to the freedom that comes with embracing life, giving them the support and tools they need not just for a healthier life, but a better life.
Where are the growth opportunities for the company?
The percentage of the population with inpatient health insurance plans stands at 45.8pc at the end of June 2017 compared to the 2008 peak of 50.9pc. During the recession, many people either dropped their health cover, or downgraded it.
Our focus is to encourage people back into the market by demonstrating relevance and delivering tangible value to them as members. It’s not enough to show how we will look after people when they were sick, which is only about 3pc of their lives. We want to be there for them for the 97pc of the time they’re well.